Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Little White Lies...

Phew! I am so smiling right now, I have what the bible calls “the peace that surpasses all understanding, guarding my heart and mind”. God is good.

So I had this “situation” at work, where in previous weeks, I had not responded to certain requests made to me by members of my staff. I figured, if I don’t answer, they’ll stop asking.  In effect what my silence did was create an element of suspicion and distrust, and I found myself with the possibility of being cornered and having to spill the beans. I had created an illusion about something and the bubble was soon to burst. Last week Tuesday I was in “a state” because I thought “eish, now EVERYONE will know that I lied, or was rather I was “creative” with the truth” (same thing).
The prideful Nyasha came to the fore and I became indignant, thinking to myself “How dare they question me? My Motives? My integrity!”...but at the back of my mind a small voice said “Well you have not been completely honest have you now?” So started my sleepless night on how I could possibly salvage the situation, and the repercussions of becoming even more “creative” with the truth, versus just telling the truth. I woke up early on Wednesday morning unable to sleep because my conscience wouldn’t let me, and I started praying for a way out. The solution was not what I wanted it to be; hell it was FAR from my plan. But it was very simple – I had to tell the truth. Not just to myself, but to those that I had misled and let me be honest; also lied to, but most importantly I had to make peace with God. Yeah, swallow my pride; admit my shortcomings, not just in my prayer time, but publically... Eish!

The bible says in James 5:16 “Confess to one another your trespasses, that you may be healed...” I thought it weird that I should think of this passage. I didn’t need healing, I wasn’t sick. But I began to realise that mind was sick. I had created a pattern of behaviour over this issue which would surely lead to my destruction, and had no one else to blame but me! I realised the truth of the phrase “integrity is what you’re willing to do when you think no one is looking”, and eish I had been nabbed! I decided to confess my duplicity, and ask for forgiveness; knowing that doing so during my quiet time was going to be a lot easier than in front of several pairs of accusing eyes. But I decided that this is it, this is the plan, and I need to stick with it. Interestingly enough, I was on leave when this whole thing was about to blow up in my face, and after making my decision to tell the truth, I still had 5 days before I was due to return to work. 5 loooooooong days where I wrestled more than once with my decision. 5 days when I kept thinking “surely I don’t have to tell the WHOLE truth”...hehehhehehhe....
Right now I have just come out of a long meeting, where by the time I went in, I decided that I would tell the whole truth, I would lay it all there, admit my lies, and heck see what happens. God in his infinite goodness knows that the truth is truly the remedy we need to a lot of our problems. I can honestly sit here right now and say that yeah, it was hairy at times, and I really, really, really feel as though I could have done ANYthing else, but what I just had to do. But I realised that in telling the truth, this thing is no longer hanging over my head stealing sleep away from me. I have been released from that bondage of keeping that “secret”, and also believing that I am “invincible”. I have realised that being transparent in some situations allows others to see that at the end of the day I am human, I don’t have it all together yet, it’s not all figured out. There’s freedom in that, but there is even more freedom in being able to say “I am sorry; can we start over?”

I suspect I will sleep a lot better tonight now that is off my chest...

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